Researchers from Florida State College and Florida A&M College are partnering with the federal government of Honduras on a global, interdisciplinary mission to enhance well being care in rural Honduran communities.
The International Well being Collaboration Challenge, or GHCP, is an initiative of FSU, FAMU and the medical college of the Nationwide Autonomous College of Honduras. Researchers with the mission lately signed a memorandum of understanding with the Honduran Ministry of Science, Innovation and Know-how, or SENACIT, to develop a well being collaboration middle within the nation.
“Our aim is approaching public well being issues in Honduras by the lens of scientific collaboration,” stated Charles Fleischer, director of FSU’s Middle on International Well being and a GHCP co-principal investigator. “Analysis on the middle will inform interventions for enhancing affected person care, mitigating potential harms and addressing acute and continual situations in methods which can be culturally cognizant, possible, scalable and sustainable.”
Together with physicians, GHCP consists of researchers specializing in pharmacy, public well being, nursing, engineering, social work and biomedical sciences. SENACIT will share information collected throughout its work to enhance the provision of well being information in Honduras and assist the middle’s mission.
Researchers on the middle will work with native populations to be taught extra about their tradition and particular well being circumstances and wishes. This may present perception for well being care professionals to develop interventions designed for sufferers. Together with enter from the inhabitants that the interventions are supposed to serve respects their autonomy and makes it extra probably that the remedy will likely be efficient, Fleischer stated.
For instance, take into account hypertension. Non-medication approaches, similar to adopting diets designed to deal with the situation, have been proven to enhance blood strain and scale back the chance of stroke, coronary heart illness and different continual situations. However physicians prescribing such an strategy have to think about what sufferers already eat and what meals is out there and inexpensive for them.
“Understanding the dietary practices of the inhabitants you might be serving is extraordinarily essential, as a result of what you are doing in a single space is not going to at all times work effectively in one other space,” Fleischer stated.
Together with serving to to satisfy sufferers’ well being care wants, the middle will present a studying alternative for college students from the USA and Honduras.
“This interdisciplinary analysis collaboration between universities within the US and Honduras gives skilled growth alternatives for college students and school,” stated Fatimah Sherbeny, FAMU assistant professor and co-principal investigator. “It additionally highlights the significance of range, in abilities, backgrounds and experience, in establishing a complete mission to enhance affected person well being outcomes in deprived communities.”
For college students from FSU and FAMU, potential future alternatives with the middle are a possibility to problem themselves and develop as researchers and medical professionals.
“It’s a distinctive expertise for college students from all of our packages concerned to work together, hear from and be taught from one another and from completely different backgrounds and environments,” stated Sunny Narayanan, FSU researcher and co-principal investigator. “This gives perspective, perception, and expands everybody’s understanding of well being, tradition and our world.”
